New Health Literacy Website launched

New Health Literacy Website launched

1,621,000 adult New Zealanders have poor health literacy skills (Kōrero Mārama, 2010). That means 56% of adult New Zealanders have difficulty obtaining and understanding health information and services to make appropriate health decisions.

A new website (www.healthliteracy.co.nz) was launched by Workbase, the New Zealand Centre for Workforce Literacy Development, on 28 September. The purpose of the web site is to improve levels of health literacy in New Zealand, and to help the health and literacy sectors to work together to achieve this improvement.

The website provides free comprehensive information about health literacy and associated resources for eight special interest groups working in the health sector and adult literacy in New Zealand. These interest groups include health professionals, District Health Boards, Primary Health Organisations and the government. Each section looks at issues relating to health literacy the interest group faces in their work and also offers options about addressing these issues.

Susan Reid, Consulting Services Manager, Workbase, says “Health literacy is not just about whether people can read health related documents or not. A lot of organisations work really hard to make their health communications simple and accessible. But this isn’t enough. What we need to do is build people’s health literacy skills as part of those documents and oral communications. Examples include making sure people understand the medical terminology and developing people’s knowledge and skills around what to say when they don’t understand what a health professional is saying to them. This health literacy web site offers some simple ways for people to help themselves and their whanau improve their health literacy.

We wanted to pull together and share some of the information and resources available on this important topic. There are many ways New Zealanders’ health literacy can be developed to make better health decisions. We need to address health literacy to improve the effectiveness of our health system. This is particularly important for Māori where 80% of men and 75% of women have poor health literacy skills.”

ENDS

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